The National Museum of Prehistory in Taitung is to reopen on Friday after almost three years, with the reopening timed to coincide with International Museum Day on Thursday.
The museum was closed to renovate its interior, including its exhibition spaces, museum director Wang Chang-hua (王長華) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Over the past three decades, archeologists have unearthed historically significant artifacts in Taiwan that indicate Austronesian settlers arrived in Taiwan by sea as early as 30,000 years ago, Wang said.
Photo: Ling Mei-hsueh, Taipei Times
With exhibits ranging from stone tools to contemporary pieces, the museum hopes to tell the history of Taiwan from the Paleolithic age about 3 million years ago to the 21st century, she said.
Some contemporary items include a Taiwan jersey worn by Wei Chuan Dragons baseball player Ngayaw Ake, an Amis, at the 2015 WSBC Premier 12 tournament and a Golden Melody Award that Amis singer Suming lent to the museum after his Song of the Year win in 2016 for Aka Pisawad, she said.
Hopefully, museum visitors would gain a greater appreciation for the contributions of indigenous people to the sports and entertainment industries, Wang said.
Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) said that the reopening slogan, “Here, Taiwan meets the world,” not only applies to Taiwan’s interactions with the international community, but more importantly to the interactions that started thousands of years ago.
Taiwan is fortunate to have a unique culture that is intertwined with Chinese and Austronesian cultures, Shih said.
Taiwanese should not only care about the present, but also learn about the nation’s past, Shih said, adding that to do so is culturally respectful.
Hopefully, all 23 million of Taiwan’s residents would visit the museum, he said.
Palauan Ambassador to Taiwan David Adams Orrukem passed on Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr’s gratitude for inviting Palau to be part of the “very important” occasion.
“For us, being islanders, I know that some Palauans came from Taiwan,” Orrukem said. “So there’s some similarity when you go around the museum. And it made me so proud and so happy to be part of the museum.”
The ambassador gifted the museum an ebakl, a woodworking adze that is a patriarchal symbol in Palauan families, and a toluk, a ceremonial object made of hawksbill sea turtle shells exchanged between Palaun women to mark significant moments in their lives.
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